Evacuation stalls in Aleppo

Syrian TV, rebels trade blame

Beirut — Diplomats sought to salvage the evacuation of eastern Aleppo after it stalled Friday amid recriminations by both sides in Syria’s civil war, raising fears the ceasefire could collapse with thousands still desperate to escape the rebel enclave.

The Aleppo evacuation was suspended after a report of shooting at a crossing point into the enclave. The Syrian government pulled out its buses that since Thursday had been ferrying out people from the ancient city that has suffered under intense bombardment, fierce battles and a prolonged siege.

“The carnage in Syria remains a gaping hole in the global conscience,” said U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon. “Aleppo is now a synonym for hell.”

The halt also appeared to be linked to a separate deal to remove thousands of people from the government-held Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya that are under siege by the rebels. The Syrian government says those evacuations and the one in eastern Aleppo must be done simultaneously, but the rebels say there’s no connection.

The foreign minister of Turkey, a main backer of the rebels, said he was talking to his counterpart in Iran, a top ally of the Syrian government, to try to resume the evacuation.

A closed emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council was held on the crisis in Aleppo, discussing a French proposal to have independent monitors oversee the evacuation of civilians and fighters. The council meeting ended with diplomats saying they would convene again this weekend.

The ceasefire and evacuation marked the end of the rebels’ most important stronghold in the 5-year-old civil war. The suspension demonstrated the fragility of the ceasefire deal, in which civilians and fighters in the few remaining blocks of the rebel enclave were to be taken to opposition-held territory nearby.

In announcing the suspension, Syrian state TV said rebels were trying to smuggle out captives who had been seized in the enclave after ferocious battles with troops supporting President Bashar Assad.

Several opposition activists said Syrian troops shot and killed four people in one bus, but the incident could not be independently confirmed.

Reports differed on how many people remain in the Aleppo enclave, ranging from 15,000 to 40,000 civilians, along with an estimated 6,000 fighters.

More than 2,700 children were evacuated in the 24 hours before the suspension, UNICEF said. Hundreds remain trapped, it added.